Are You the One?'s gender fluid season was like a Gen Z fever dream

The Guardian

"MTV aired the season eight finale of Are You the One? on Monday night and it was a bittersweet ending for the show’s newly gained LGBTQ+ fans, who have been obsessively tracking the dizzying carousel of pairings, make-outs, and heartbreaks this summer," says Andre Wheeler. "That’s because the finale marks the end of a previously unremarkable dating show undergoing an exciting queerification. The change has created such a buzz, Are You the One? viewing parties at queer nightlife spots became popular this season. This season was a Gen Z fever dream: every cast member identifies as sexually fluid. There was a trans masculine heartbreaker, a non-binary scene-stealer who uses they/them pronouns and performs under the drag persona Dionne Slay, and contestants who relished the chance to explore their bisexuality for the first time. Dating can be full of limitations for queer people, especially those who live in rural areas. And with this season of Are You the One?, MTV manufactured a glossy, made-for-cameras queer utopia for viewers and a chance to explore the question: would dating be easier if everyone was open to dating everyone (and hot)? The answer is no."

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• Would Are You the One? do another gender fluid season?: "I think that we will continue to tell the stories that we feel need to be told, and that our audience is yearning for," says executive producer Sitarah Pendelton. "This clearly was one of them. Would I love the opportunity to do more of that? One thousand percent. Are there more stories like this to tell? Of course."
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